Tuesday, March 27, 2012

OK, so I have 99 tomato plants.


Which is not 100, so I'm calling myself less than totally ridiculous.

Right? The double digitness rather than triple digitness makes it OK?

Yeah, maybe not. BUT - I have a plan for finding homes for all of these lovely ladies.

Lovely ladies, who, by the way have set up shop on the bar and why wouldn't they because I like it a lot myself.

G&Ts used to be had here. Now - only water. A dry bar! How sad.

So, what's the update then?

That I have 99 potted up tomato plants (after some thinning of weaklings and doubling up) living la vida loca in their own individual 4" pots PLUS 13 Lettuce Leaf basil plants (awesome favorite!), 3 Padron Peppers, 2 Banana Peppers, 2 Tomatillos, ZERO (sad) Golden Greek peppers, 12 Parisian Pickling cucumbers and 2 Solly Bieler cucumbers.

It's quite the Hey Whatcha Got Going On Back There set up and I realize that my neighbors and the PG&E guy definitely think that yeah I may be growing tomatoes but what else.

Clearly these are all people who underestimate the near insatiable desire for tomatoes.

An insatiable desire that I'm heavily banking on as I get ready to roll out Phase II of my World Tomato Domination Plan.

OK, actually, no. I just have a super nerdy garden thing that I want your opinions on. Really! Tell me what you think.

See, I'm finding homes for my tomatoes (and those other plants) by either exchanging them for AIDS LifeCycle donations, selling them at our neighborhood garage sale or trading them for goods at our neighborhood produce swap.

That's all fine and good, right? (Just say yes. This isn't the part I need opinions on. Unless you have a good one. In which case, go to it in the comments.)

But then, what of the plants?

They go off to a million (or 20, but that's about the same) different points on the globe (in the Bay Area) and I'm left with just the few plants I put in my own garden and maybe some neighbors who plant theirs and then let me visit them at some point during the season (when I sneak into their backyards unannounced in the dark morning hours).

How sad!

I won't know how the plants do. I won't know what kind of harvests they rake in, how delicious the bounty is or what they do to preserve their harvests. I also won't get to save any of their seeds to grow again for next year.

SAD.

So, because I'm totally certifiable at this point, I've come up with a plan to see if I can't subvert some of those woes and it's called The Finny Farm and it's a new tab that I've added to this blog so that I can in a nice way stalk and keep tabs on my green friends as they go off and make their ways in the world and then *maybe* have a chance at some of those seeds for next year's Wild Indoor Grow Op That Looks Like I'm Growing Weed In My Kitchen Extravaganza.

I'm going to design a plant tag for each of the transplants that goes off to a new home that will have all of the plant's information PLUS a link to that page so that people can dork out on their plants and also maybe stay in touch after the fact (and let me see their tomatoes - PORNY).

Is that the most fucked up thing you've ever heard?

Wait - go look at the page first and see if it sounds crazy.

And - if you're feeling really awesome and good idea have-y - is there anything else you'd want to see if you were to follow a website from a yard sale bought plant tag to the internets with the promise of MORE information and nerdy good garden times?

You can also just tell me I've lost my walnut and should be committed. I won't be offended. Probably.

16 comments:

  1. I think it is a fabulous idea and I wish there was a way you could ship across the country because I would love one of your tomato plants here in Syracuse, NY...even though I have several of my own seedlings sitting under lights!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Soooooooooooooooo...what are you growing? Don't hold out on me, sister.

      Delete
    2. so far, 3 kinds of tomatoes, with 3 more on order-YIKES!, onions, 2 kinds of peppers-carnival and orange, basil, and brussel sprouts. still have more to get in. I'm in the Northeast so have to hold back a bit from planting too soon.

      Delete
  2. I think it's a great idea Finny. But, if you get negative local reviews, you could always call it the Finny Funny Farm.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so glad that you got the gist of the name right off the bat. I was thinking a riff on going to "The Funny Farm" for vegetables grown by an obsessed lunatic sounded about right.

      Delete
  3. Maximum (Nerdy) Coolness!!!

    I shall be posting about the 'maters I get from you (as well as the half-a-gajillion that I buy at the Master Gardeners' Mayhem/sale) and I'll link back to you and all of that happy horsesh*t - err "compost!"

    Awesome idea!

    Hey - are you plant tags gonna have those QR Code thingies on 'em that'll link straight to your site? That would be, like, over-the-top in Nerdiness!

    -QT "Willing Participant!"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yay! I knew I could count on you, QTPI :) And you KNOW that my plant tags will have QR codes on them.

      THEY MAY EVEN BE LAMINATED BECAUSE I'M JUST THAT NERDY.

      Prepare thyself.

      Delete
    2. Just for the record: You scare me!

      (just a little!)

      xoxo

      -QT

      Delete
  4. Those lights seem to be working really well, what kind are they and where did you get them? I used a sunny window last year which was okay, but my seedlings didn't look great all the time even though they came through in the end.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You know, the lights ARE working well. I really like them. They're smaller than a standard shop light set up, which is what I was planning to do, but I needed something smaller so that I could set this rig up at the bar. They're 2' rather than 4'. Look for Lithonia Lighting Grow Lights. They're a bit pricier than a shop light set up, but they're just the right size, etc for what I needed. When I have a bigger space, I'll do standard shop lights with one cool and one warm florescent bulb.

      Delete
    2. Late for a reply, but I'm still looking into growing lights, there are a lot of options! Is there a reason you chose a fixture with 2 T5 bulbs, instead of 4 bulbs? Looks like you were able to fit 5 flats under 3 lights? When you have a bigger space, you'll do standard shop lights with one cool and one warm bulb, are these different than the T5's?

      Delete
  5. That sounds like a very cool idea. I hope a bunch of folk actually follow through and participate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Samesies. This whole plan basically hatched from my fear that no one would participate and all this work would be gone forever.

      Let's hope they do.

      Delete
  6. Ninety-nine is totally reasonable. One hundred would have been just craziness. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. That's a lot of veggies :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Could you please grow me a hot fudge sundae?

    ReplyDelete

[2013 update: You can't comment as an anonymous person anymore. Too many douchebags were leaving bullshit SPAM comments and my inbox was getting flooded, but if you're here to comment in a real way like a real person, go to it.]

Look at you commenting, that's fun.

So, here's the thing with commenting, unless you have an email address associated with your own profile, your comment will still post, but I won't have an email address with which to reply to you personally.

Sucks, right?

Anyway, to remedy this, I usually come back to my posts and post replies in the comment field with you.

But, if you ever want to email me directly to talk about pumpkins or shoes or what it's like to spend a good part of your day Swiffering - shoot me an email to finnyknitsATgmailDOTcom.

Cheers.